Compulsory flute lessons
This week is on Luke 7:29-35:
These verses come after John the Baptist had come under some persecution by the government and church leaders for telling too many embarrassing truths. He sent a couple of his disciples to Jesus to basically say "I thought you had my back?!" It was his version of "My God, why have you forsaken me?" They were two guys on the same path, but John had to go first. John expected Jesus to help rescue him from the path to martyrdom, and when he seemed to let him to keep going, John wondered if he was wrong, just like the Pharisees and teachers of the law wondered if both of them were wrong. Jesus explains that doing things differently doesn't necessarily mean doing things wrong.
The Pharisees had their own proven philosophy of ministry that had served them well for generations. They, and the experts in the law, would learn a whole bunch of things from their teachers, not all of which were God's law, and then they would teach them to others. As disciples of their teachers of the law, they picked up godly and ungodly habits, godly and ungodly rules, godly and ungodly doctrines, and various traditions, but without God they couldn't tell the difference. All they had was their model that was shown to them by their earthly teachers.
The model would guide their views of what was right or wrong. If their teacher had taught them to have long tassels on their robes, then people with short tassels were rubes. If their teacher had taught them to wash their hands a certain way before dinner, people who didn't wash that way were filthy. If their teacher taught them to fast on certain days, or to give alms at certain holidays, then those who didn't play along were ignorant. Someone who didn't know these traditions, or who was following Jesus on a different path, would be met with cries of "Well Gamaliel said to do it this other way," or "Hillel didn't do it that way. You should read his teachings."
It's an awful side-effect of being disciples of men without being disciples of God. I think that is what is behind the denominationalism we suffer from in modern times. We look at other churches, or even at other people in our own church, and we think "Well that's not how we do it," or "That's not how I was taught when I was in Bible school," and we immediately assume it's wrong. There are some things that are wrong. Adultery is wrong. Murder is wrong. Blasphemy is wrong. Cowardice and selfishness are wrong. But we never point those things out in differences amongst Christian groups. We only point out differences in style and tradition.
Jesus calls the Pharisees out, and even John's disciples, on this issue. He says it's like kids looking down on other kids who aren't playing the same meaningless games they're playing. "We played the flute, but you didn't dance." "We were singing a dirge, but you didn't cry." They're upset because they look like fools doing it by themselves. They want others to play along. They want to be the leaders, the ones who make others do things their way. They want people to see and acknowledge that they're right, that they're cool.
Jesus uses himself and John the Baptist as an examples of how two righteous ministries can be so different and yet still be right. John was ascetic, and Jesus was stoic, and yet both preached repentance, forgiveness, and relationship with Jesus. Their clothes, their mannerisms, and even the people who followed them probably couldn't have looked more different from each other, and yet both were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.
Wisdom is proved right by her children. If what someone is doing is producing disciples of Christ, healing the sick, feeding the poor, and challenging people in their sins, without producing more sin and fewer disciples of Christ, then it's probably OK, even if it's different from what you're doing. So, does our teaching style, or the type of songs we sing or don't sing, or what time we have our service, or how we decorate our church, or whether we eat grain on the sabbath or not, really matter? Is the kingdom of God a matter of style or tradition? Or is it someone else's kingdom we're trying to win people into?
(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)
Jesus went on to say, “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.’
For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
These verses come after John the Baptist had come under some persecution by the government and church leaders for telling too many embarrassing truths. He sent a couple of his disciples to Jesus to basically say "I thought you had my back?!" It was his version of "My God, why have you forsaken me?" They were two guys on the same path, but John had to go first. John expected Jesus to help rescue him from the path to martyrdom, and when he seemed to let him to keep going, John wondered if he was wrong, just like the Pharisees and teachers of the law wondered if both of them were wrong. Jesus explains that doing things differently doesn't necessarily mean doing things wrong.
The Pharisees had their own proven philosophy of ministry that had served them well for generations. They, and the experts in the law, would learn a whole bunch of things from their teachers, not all of which were God's law, and then they would teach them to others. As disciples of their teachers of the law, they picked up godly and ungodly habits, godly and ungodly rules, godly and ungodly doctrines, and various traditions, but without God they couldn't tell the difference. All they had was their model that was shown to them by their earthly teachers.
The model would guide their views of what was right or wrong. If their teacher had taught them to have long tassels on their robes, then people with short tassels were rubes. If their teacher had taught them to wash their hands a certain way before dinner, people who didn't wash that way were filthy. If their teacher taught them to fast on certain days, or to give alms at certain holidays, then those who didn't play along were ignorant. Someone who didn't know these traditions, or who was following Jesus on a different path, would be met with cries of "Well Gamaliel said to do it this other way," or "Hillel didn't do it that way. You should read his teachings."
It's an awful side-effect of being disciples of men without being disciples of God. I think that is what is behind the denominationalism we suffer from in modern times. We look at other churches, or even at other people in our own church, and we think "Well that's not how we do it," or "That's not how I was taught when I was in Bible school," and we immediately assume it's wrong. There are some things that are wrong. Adultery is wrong. Murder is wrong. Blasphemy is wrong. Cowardice and selfishness are wrong. But we never point those things out in differences amongst Christian groups. We only point out differences in style and tradition.
Jesus calls the Pharisees out, and even John's disciples, on this issue. He says it's like kids looking down on other kids who aren't playing the same meaningless games they're playing. "We played the flute, but you didn't dance." "We were singing a dirge, but you didn't cry." They're upset because they look like fools doing it by themselves. They want others to play along. They want to be the leaders, the ones who make others do things their way. They want people to see and acknowledge that they're right, that they're cool.
Jesus uses himself and John the Baptist as an examples of how two righteous ministries can be so different and yet still be right. John was ascetic, and Jesus was stoic, and yet both preached repentance, forgiveness, and relationship with Jesus. Their clothes, their mannerisms, and even the people who followed them probably couldn't have looked more different from each other, and yet both were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.
Wisdom is proved right by her children. If what someone is doing is producing disciples of Christ, healing the sick, feeding the poor, and challenging people in their sins, without producing more sin and fewer disciples of Christ, then it's probably OK, even if it's different from what you're doing. So, does our teaching style, or the type of songs we sing or don't sing, or what time we have our service, or how we decorate our church, or whether we eat grain on the sabbath or not, really matter? Is the kingdom of God a matter of style or tradition? Or is it someone else's kingdom we're trying to win people into?
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